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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The Herald's list of Notable South Florida Theatre events

The Miami Herald published its most notable events of 2007 this past Christmas Eve. And as one would hope, the South Florida theatre scene had its moments, as enumerated by the Heralds' theatre reviewer, Christine Dolen:

Quick and impressive: November's 24-Hour Theatre Project, produced by the Naked Stage and involving a wide spectrum of South Florida talent, proved the theater community has the chops and the gifted playwrights to create, rehearse and present six plays in only a day.

Overcoming its title: With a name like Urinetown,it's a wonder that any theater produces this nifty satire on politicalcorruption and musicals themselves; nonetheless, an Actors' Playhousecast full of superb voices did the show proud in October.

Mideast conflict: April should have seen three one-person shows about women in the Middle East: Golda's Balcony at GableStage, Nine Parts of Desire at the Mosaic Theatre and My Name is Rachel Corrie at Mosaic; the first two got impressive productions, but protests against the ever-controversial Rachel Corrie convinced artistic director Richard Jay Simon to pull the play.

Irish eyes: GableStage continued its way with Martin McDonagh's bloody, darkly funny plays in its August production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, a piece involving a wayward cat, a too-attached terrorist and some blinded bad guys.

New works rule: In March,Manalapan's Florida Stage inaugurated its festival devoted to readingsof new plays (including one co-authored by Tarell McCraney), withseveral landing on this season's schedule; Coral Gables' New Theatrehas also jumped enthusiastically on the new works bandwagon.

Languishing playhouse: Despite occasional bursts ofnews and ongoing work by its remaining board, the historic CoconutGrove Playhouse remains a dark, decaying shell of the once-greattheater that shut down more than a year and a half ago -- and more than$4 million in debt.